Leicestershire wideboys develop new Microsoft scam

It looks like people in Leicestershire are getting a localised version of the Microsoft scam.

The Microsoft scam involves someone from a call centre in India ringing you up and pretending to be from Redmond. They trick users into “fixing” their PC by installing all sorts of malware before demanding that the user hand over cash to free it.

It seems that some wide boy in Leicestershire County read about the scheme set up a local operation.

The local scheme is interesting because rather than claiming to work for Microsoft, the hoaxers pretend to be working for Leicestershire County Council.

We don’t know about you, but we often have people from the council coming around to fix our PC, so it must work.

One caller told a resident the County Council had passed on their details and that they were working with the police.

David Bull, Leicestershire County Council’s head of trading standards issued a statement saying that there was not a bat’s chance in hell that they it would pass on individuals’ details to businesses.

He suggesting that people should not respond to such calls and never to give any personal details to an unknown person.